The Grimoire Encyclopaedia: Volume 1: A convocation of spirits, texts, materials, and practices

Everyone that is interested in studying witchcraft should have these books on their shelves.

Boy those old 13th and 14th century grimoires don't have a good index.We needed these both parts 1 and 2 my whole life.

This is amazing I have just start to dive into the depths of this book

Looking forward to delving into this encyclopedia. Great reference material for research.

I am relatively new to the subject of spirit summoning ('conjuration'/'evocation'/'solomonic/goetic magic', etc) and bought this book after hearing an interview with the author. I am disappointed by its lack of utility as a first book for a beginner, but I can't fault the author or text for that. Instead, I would like to inform other potential customers on two important points. First let me be clear that my two star rating reflects the unwieldy and frustratingly difficult process of using this book as it was apparently intended more than my personal disappointment that it did not meet my needs (details below).First you must know: this book does not, can not, and will not explain or guide the reader through any ritual spirit summoning. It is a reference work and does not contain the texts or recapitulations of any rituals.Next, understand exactly what this book is: an encyclopedia of brief entries on 100 texts from the Western world, dating from the final centuries BC to the mid 19th century, that concern communication with spirits (most of them "grimoires"). There is much information that may be useful for various studies, but there is ONE very clear central purpose that the whole work is devoted to: a cross-referenced catalogue of all the spirits contained in these 100 texts. I would stress the importance of that point to the potential buyer: consider whether such a list is truly useful to your endeavors. This review will attempt to give you a sense of what using this book is LIKE, but I highly recommend actually perusing this book before purchase; you'll see what I mean.It's a huge book. The physical dimensions of each page are just slightly smaller than the typical 8.5 x 11 computer paper, and it's thick: 740 of those big pages. There are a few scattered illustrations from the grimoires here and there, many unfortunately pixelated and shoddy. But I didn't buy this book for pictures.425 of this book's pages (p 288-713) are devoted to the general 'Spirit List', an alphabetical listing of all the spirits in the grimoires under discussion (I would guess there are around 10,000 spirit names here). Next to each spirit name is its "type" (some random examples: "Angel"; "Demon Duke -- North-West Day"; "Spirit of the Thumb"; "Genii -- 7° Leo"), then a list of all the grimoires covered in the book that mention that spirit, written in abbreviations. Let me point out that this one section takes up over half the book (57% of it). By contrast, the earlier section entitled 'Encyclopedic Entries' (that is, the actual "Grimoire Encyclopaedia" of this book's title) comprises 248 pages (p 39-287), or one third of the whole book.These entries are more like data files than readable prose summaries of the grimoires. Most entries are each a page or two long. Each entry lists the Date, Language, Influences (ie. prior grimoires), Provenance, MSS (list of known manuscripts), Circle ('yes' or 'no'), Tools, and its own Spirit List (an alphabetical list of spirits with no commentary), followed by a section called "The Text" and then "Essential Reading" (where the author comments on the various printed editions available). The "Text" section, the only part of each entry written in prose, usually begins with the author's very brief general take on this particular grimoire (e.g. "one of the most significant of the early grimoires''), then moves on a to blow-by-blow summary of the chapters or rituals/spells in the work. This part is not readable as regular prose, as it is another dull and taxing list. Of course, if you are looking for a specific type of spell or subject, such a summary is useful, but its utility is minimized by the items being presented in the order they are found in the grimoire, with NO INDEX. I am not faulting Mr. Rankine for the decision not to include such a "spell" index, as of course that would add another few hundred pages and be a massive undertaking in itself. (It could be argued that the whole book is an index of sorts-- albeit one without reference to page numbers.) I am, however, questioning the utility of the whole endeavor. Before continuing on this point, let me add that often the lengthiest part of a given grimoire entry is its Spirit List, more evidence for my proposition that the main purpose of this book is as a spirit catalogue.Even for that, it is not exactly easy to use. Early in the introduction, Mr Rankine mentions the "Olympian Spirits", which I had never heard of. My first attempt to use this book was to find out more about those particular entities. I found this to be impossible. Like I said, there's no index for me to look up "Olympian" and in the incredibly dense mass of text you're not likely to stumble on your query by random flipping. So I resorted to using the internet to search for "Olympian Spirits" (note, I have already left this book to find information elsewhere). I chose one of the Olympian Spirits whose name I saw online ("Aratron") and looked it up in this book's massive general Spirit List. As I mentioned, the Spirit List has three columns: Name, Type, and Grimoires. There I found my query just below "Araton", "Araton" (sic), and "Arator". Its Type column said "Olympic Spirit -- Saturn" so I knew I was on the right track. Finally, the grimoires: "KoSR, Arb, MC, GAG, JMR, MNeI, oADS, KoN, GOA, PO, ClI, SGT, SSG" (p 333). Each of these is an abbreviation for a grimoire glossed in this book. It would have been nice if this part included THE PAGES OF THIS BOOK where each grimoire could be found... Instead, you have to look at the abbreviations list (found just before Page 1), then search for that grimoire entry in the book. The first grimoire listed for Aratron is "KoSR", which according to the abbreviations key refers to "Key of Solomon, Rabbi Solomon Family text". We turn to the table of contents to locate the entry for that grimoire, and hit another snag: The grimoire entries are presented in chronological order of their apparent date of origin rather than alphabetically as would be typical for an encyclopedia. I sympathize with this decision as it emphasizes the historical process of information transmission that resulted in the famous grimoires so that one might read the entries as a sort of "story"; however, nowhere is an alphabetical listing of the entries provided. So EVERY TIME you want to look up a certain grimoire, you have to scan through the table of contents, reading it line by line looking for your query. With 100 entries, many with similar names, printed in italics in small type: Good Luck.Scanning in this manner for "Key of Solomon, Rabbi Solomon Family text", I find merely "Key of Solomon"-- close enough. The "text" section of that entry briefly explains what the "family text" thing means, but doesn't say anything about 'Olympic spirits'. In the massive list of spirits contained in the Key of Solomon, I'm sure I could find Aratron if I tried, but that would tell me nothing more about him/her/it. So: flip back to the spirit list, find Aratron again, look at the next grimoire ("Arb"), flip to the front, find "Arb" in the abbreviation list (Arbatel), flip to the table of contents, scan for 'Arbatel', get to the end without seeing it, try again, there it is, go to page 158 and start reading. In the one-page entry for 'Arbatel' we find, as part of the summary for this grimoire: "Aphorisms 16-21 introduce the seven Olympic Spirits, giving their names, seals, qualities, and their conjurations. A discussion of the different types of secrets follows..." and it moves on in its summary of this grimoire. Well, now I know that a grimoire called 'Arbatel' contains some info on "the Olympic Spirits" (I still don't know what they are). The "Essential Reading" section informs me of two books, one of which is co-authored by Rankine himself, that I can look to for more info. I am quite sincere when I say that for most readers "Essential Reading" is likely to be the most valuable section of each entry.The introductory matter contains a section wherein Mr Rankine outlines and comments upon his own ritual spirit summoning process. As I said at the outset, this generalized outline is not enough to practice magic in itself. Conceivably a student could use this brief section (incidentally the only part of this giant book with sustained readability) in combination with one of the more complete grimoires to map out an actual ritual for themselves. This would require multiple books, some ingenuity, and guesswork (as Rankine points out, most of the grimoires themselves were not intended as "how to" manuals but rather were notes made by occultists to aid their practice, so even the full text of a grimoire is not a complete guide to an effective ritual). I mention this in case someone who's glanced at the book and noticed this section objects to my claim that there is almost no practical info.I have no doubt that this is an unprecedented work of scholarship, that Mr Rankine has compiled the most information on these 100 texts into one place that yet exists, and that this will be an essential reference work for the academic study of the grimoire texts. As far as I can see, its value for the interested amateur looking for fascinating reading or the occult practitioner looking for practical instruction is solely as an expensive and unwieldy list of other books to check out.

Thoroughly researched. Will take some time to digest. You need both volumes.